The obsequious alchemist's assistant Whitehead (Reece Shearsmith) is searching for an Irishman named O'Neill (Michael Smiley), who has stolen some items of great value from his master. He flees from his strict commander Trower (Julian Barratt) during a skirmish, and meets a man called Cutler along with two deserted soldiers, Jacob and Friend. Cutler entices the others to come along with him with the promise of stopping off at an alehouse. However, he soon reveals himself as O'Neill's accomplice. The two are searching for buried treasure, and take the three other men captive to help them find it, with the aid of psychedelic mushrooms.

The film is notable for being released simultaneously on television, in cinemas, on DVD and as a Video on Demand on Friday, 5th July 2013.

This Film Provides Examples Of:

Agony of the Feet: First Friend retaliates to an attack by Jacob by jabbing his spade into his foot. During the Showdown, Jacob almost shoots O'Neill's foot off with a musket. Followed by a slow motion closeup of the remaining bone snapping under his weight.

Badass Bookworm: O'Neill is a lot more dangerous than the average alchemist - hitting a man in the face with a shovel is one of his less violent acts.

Berserk Button: Don't call O'Neill a fool or question the efficacy of his or Whitehead's magic. When Cutler does both, after O'Neill fails to find treasure in the spot that Whitehead indicates, O'Neill's response is to shoot his brains out.

Beware the Nice Ones: Whitehead proves to be far more capable of violence than first impressions would indicate, once he musters a little self-confidence.

Bewitched Amphibians: O'Neill threatens to turn Jacob into a frog when the latter mouths off to him. Later on, Jacob has a check-up with Whitehead, who assures him that the pustules on his genitals derive from a venereal disease (most likely syphilis), rather than being a sign of slow amphibian transformation, as he had feared. In fact, being turned into a frog is one of few complaints Jacob isn't suffering from.

Black Comedy: The often demented sense of the story makes it veer into this territory often. Some prominent examples can be seen below:

Dead to Begin With: At least one review has interpreted the eponymous Field as being some kind of purgatory. Much is made of the fact that the characters are physically separated from the battlefield by a hedgerow, and they are headed to an alehouse that may or may not exist. The supernatural events that occur later in the film, such as characters apparently coming back from the dead, give further credence to this theory

Deranged Animation: Appropriately enough, given the nature of the film, the fractal logo animation for Rook Films was made by Cyriak.

"We shall sample a better quality of suffering in this man's company, I am certain"

Early on in the film, Whitehead sees two mysterious figures standing in the smoke on the edge of the battlefield that appear to resemble Jacob and Friend. He claims to disregard them as simple shadows.

Gainax Ending: After apparently accomplishing his task and leaving as the sole survivor of the group, Whitehead suddenly encounters Jacob and Friend alive and well, looking at him. The film ends with a tableau of all three standing together.

Genius Bonus: Whitehead is almost certainly named after the philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, who was a huge influence on the work of Terrence Mc Kenna, "the Timothy Leary of the 90's," who did a lot of research with psychedelics, specifically mushrooms, alchemical history, and the relationship between the two.

Some of the more elaborate Mind Screw moments make more sense (well, for whatever sense is reliable in this movie) if one connects them to English folklore and alchemy, such as the part where Whitehead's group finds O'Neill by pulling a log out of the ground with a rope. Another piece of folklore that may shed more light on the story is about how going through a hedgerow (like the one all of the characters go through at the start of the film) can lead one to a completely different world.

He Who Fights Monsters: During the showdown, Whitehead deliberately eats large quantities of the strange mushrooms in the belief that it will give him the same powers as O'Neill. After he kills O'Neill, he literally takes up the mantle and hat, and gathers his magic notes and mirror, seemingly picking up O'Neill's work.

It's the Journey That Counts: After Cutler only finds old bones in the ground instead of treasure, Whitehead suggests that the friendship between him and Jacob was the real treasure. Jacob scoffs that it is a pretty sentiment, but Whitehead would no doubt starve on his own.

Mushroom Samba: When Whitehead eventually eats the mushrooms (in massive quantities), the viewer is treated to a nightmarish psychedelic experience. The film opens with an entirely serious strobe warning just for this scene.

Unexplained Recovery: Friend seems to die on several occasions, but always comes back none the worse for wear. The final shot of the film also has Whitehead seeing Friend, Jacob and Cutler, all of whom should be dead, standing before him. This could be a hallucination however.

Villainous Breakdown: O'Neill loses his cool and gives in to homicidal rage after Cutler tells him the hole contains no treasure, only bones... and then calls him a fool for believing Whitehead could've led him to an actual treasure.

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